Machine code

Machine code is a sequence of binary numbers that control a central processing unit (CPU). On very early computers, machine code was the language used to program computers. Since the 1960s, however, computer software is commonly written in a higher level language such as C, Java, FORTRAN, and assembly language.

For many CPUs, Machine code is generated from assembly language via an assembler, or sometimes directly from higher level languages such as C, via an interpreter or a compiler.